Ronnie Wood’s First American Art Show Arrives in September
The Rolling Stones‘ Ronnie Wood has been painting longer than he’s been playing guitar, and he’ll finally show off his artistic chops with a gallery exhibition this fall. On September 21st, Wood will unveil more than 60 original works at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio, marking the first time the guitarist has displayed his work at a major American museum. Ronnie Wood: Paintings, Drawings and Prints will run for eight weeks through November 21st.
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Dr. Louis A. Zona, executive director of the Butler Institute, told the New York Times , “[Wood] has done a number of cartoons, spoofs on English culture, and they look like they were done by Daumier, just wonderful things. He’s very, very talented.” Zona added that he spent four years pursuing Wood to exhibit his work at the Butler Institute. Zona also confirmed that Wood would attend the opening day ceremony, adding that he “certainly wants to meet the people who are coming to see his art.”
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Wood began painting at the age of 12 and continued to explore his passion for painting and drawing while played with the Faces, the Jeff Beck Band and the Stones. His work includes a series of screen prints called Paint It Black, which features portraits of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, a painting inspired by the Stones’ Beggars Banquet, landscapes, figurative works and one painting titled “A study of a sabre tooth tiger.” Wood has also painted a series of acrylics titled Friends, which includes portraits of Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Elvis Presley. Wood’s Butler exhibit will feature 30 of Wood’s paintings, 22 pen-and-pencil drawings and seven mixed-media works.
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While Wood will focus on his talents for fine art, he hasn’t given up on music. As Rolling Stone previously reported, Wood most recently joined Eric Clapton, B.B. King and Jeff Beck for Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival, where he talked about overcoming addiction and getting out of rehab. “I’m 90 days clean and serene,” he told RS while wearaing a colorful T-shirt he made himself that read “I Feel Like Painting.” He added, “I feel like painting and I feel like playing!” Wood is next set to reunite with his Faces bandmates for an August 13th festival date in England.